THE URBANISTE PEAR. 



Uebaniste. London Hort. Soc. Catalogue, 3d Ed. 1842. 



Bkurre' du Roi, of some foreign Collections. 



Beurre' Picquery, 1 



Louise d'Orleans, \ *^^ "^"^^ ^^^^^^ ^"'^ ^^^S^^" Collections. 



The Urbaniste is, undeniably, one of our very best 

 autumn pears. Under good culture, it is full as large 

 as the Louise Bonne of Jersey, and ripens immedi- 

 ately after that variety. The late Mr. R. Manning, 

 after some years' experience, thought the Urbaniste, 

 of all the European pears, the best substitute for the 

 old Saint Michael or White Doyenne. We have long 

 been familiar with it, and have seen it under all kinds 

 of cultivation, and do not hesitate to pronounce it as 

 unsurpassed among the autumn pears. 

 I or the early introduction of this fine variety we are indebted to the 

 Hon. J. Lowell, who in 1823, then corresponding secretary of the Mass. 

 Agricultural Society, opened a correspondence with Mr. Knight, Presi- 

 dent of the London Hoi't. Society. Mr. Knight, with that liberality 

 which was always a characteristic of his life, immediately forwarded trees 

 and scions of ten varieties of pears, among them the Urbaniste- From 

 Mr. Lowell's garden scions were disseminated, and it is now one of the 

 most generally cultivated of the new foreign pears. The Urbaniste was 

 raised by the Count de Coloma, of Malines, who first sent specimens 

 of the fruit to the London Hort. Society in 1823. 



That a pear of so much merit should not have acquired any syno- 

 nymes until within a few years, is somewhat remarkable, though fortu- 

 nate for cultivators. Within five or six years, it has been disseminated 

 from the French nurseries as the Beurre Picquery, which, by some, is 

 still believed to be a different fruit ; but the latest error is that of Bivort, 

 who named and described a pear as the Louise d'Orleans, supposed to 

 be a late seedling of Van Mens, which, after fruiting, proves to be only 

 the Urbaniste. Such mistakes, by such a pomologist as Bivort, should 

 caution us to look with distrust upon similar descriptions of new fruits. 

 The Urbaniste is a vigorous though rather slender growing tree, with 

 numerous lateral branches, which clothe the trunk from top to bottom. 

 It is late in coming into bearing on the pear, but succeeds admirably on 

 the quince. 



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